February 6 2007 – Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. (TSX:PTU.V) today released the status and most recent interpretations of its Turnor Lake Project on the eastern plane of Canada’s Athabasca Basin. The company intends to focus its exploration efforts on eight discrete target areas. A series of detailed geophysical surveys have been conducted on the property since November 2006 and drilling re-commenced in January 2007.
“Turnor Lake has proven itself to be the ideal setting for significant uranium deposition. It represents an area of structural and geological complexity which has consistently returned results indicating a widespread uranium mineralizing event” said Scott Frostad, Vice President Exploration, Purepoint Uranium Group Inc. “More than ever, we now believe Turnor Lake clearly warrants an accelerated and thorough exploration effort.”
Highlights:
- The Turnor Lake conductors wrap around the Kelsey Dome, a feature which is associated with neighboring uranium showings (including Cameco’s La Rocque Deposit which encountered up to 33.9% U3O8 over 5.5 m);
- The 27 diamond drill holes completed by Purepoint in 2006 have outlined areas with uranium-rich alteration halos of the nature typically surrounding high grade ore deposits in the Athabasca Basin;
- A significant but unexplained gravity anomaly has been discovered at depth (beneath current drilling) and may be related to the uranium deposition event;
- IP resistivity survey results suggest that significant structures and zones of sandstone alteration remain untested;
- An initial diamond drill program of approximately 1,500 m was initiated in early January 2007 in order to confirm the interpretation of the enhanced geophysics;
- A complete set of maps and diagrams outlining these findings are available at www.purepoint.ca.
The Turnor Lake Project
The Turnor Lake Project is 100% owned by Purepoint and includes five claims with a total area of 9,705 hectares situated in the eastern plane of the Athabasca Basin. Depth to the unconformity is shallow at approximately 180 metres.
The property covers known graphitic conductors that are associated with uranium showings on adjoining properties, namely Cameco’s La Rocque showing (33.9% U3O8 over 5.5 m) to the west and Areva’s HLH-50 intercept (5.2% U3O8 over 0.38 m) located to the south. The project lies in close proximity to several uranium deposits including Midwest Lake, McClean Lake, Eagle Point, and Collins Bay.
Summer 2006 Drill Results
By way of context, the Athabasca sandstone has a consistent background uranium content of only 1 to 2 parts per million (ppm). Uranium concentrations greater than 3 ppm are generally considered significant and are assumed to have come from uranium-rich fluids. Structural traps can cause these fluids to form a uranium deposit.
The maximum uranium assay was returned from TL-19 just above the unconformity at 1230 ppm U (0.15% U3O8) over 0.12 metres between 174.05 metres and 174.17 metres. The summer’s best intercept of the Turnor Lake uranium halos was from TL-24, which returned 44.8 metres of 11 ppm U (weighted average) between 157.3 m and the unconformity at 198.5 m.
A step-fault with a vertical offset of approximately 20 metres is interpreted to extend between holes TL-19 and TL-24 (named Siskin Fault) and to be related to sandstone uranium enrichment in this area. Step-faults are an ideal structural setting for a uranium deposit in the Basin.
The table below details the consistently elevated levels of uranium mineralization disclosed by the 2006 diamond drill holes which passed through the Turnor Lake halos:
Hole ID | Interval (m) | Weighted Avg. U (ppm) | Max. U (ppm) |
TL-03 | 29.0 | 34 | 438 |
TL-09 | 42.0 | 15 | 248 |
TL-10 | 17.1 | 13 | 57 |
TL-13 | 12.9 | 21 | 288 |
TL-14 | 16.7 | 12 | 224 |
TL-15 | 24.2 | 8 | 77 |
TL-19 | 7.3 | 50 | 1230 |
TL-21 | 25.8 | 11 | 134 |
TL-24 | 44.8 | 11 | 197 |
TL-28 | 52.7 | 7 | 29 |